Thread by @GregLeding

On this day in 1946, the USS Arkansas, an aging, 26,000-ton Wyoming class battleship, sank at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands during the Baker test, the second of a pair of nuclear weapon tests as part of Operation Crossroads. #ARhistory (1/9)

The Arkansas had been the closest of the ships anchored near the testing site. When the nuclear weapon detonated, the resulting underwater shock wave crushed the ship's starboard hull and rolled her onto her port side.

The ship now rests 170 feet underwater.

#ARhistory

(2/9)

The nuclear weapon that sank the Arkansas was one of 23 nuclear devices detonated between 1946 and 1958 at seven test sites near Bikini Atoll. Operation Crossroads, of which the Baker test was a part, marked the start of that testing in 1946. #ARhistory (3/9)

The US government had asked the residents of Bikini Atoll to voluntarily relocate prior to testing, which they did. The residents would move three times before returning to Bikini Atoll in 1970, having been assured by the US that it was safe.

It wasn't safe.

#ARhistory

(4/9)

Nearly a decade after the residents' return to Bikini Atoll, scientists found abnormally high levels of cesium-137 and other elements in the residents' bodies.

They were once again relocated in September 1978, 32 years after the start of Operation Crossroads.

#ARhistory

(5/9)

In 1980, as part of an agreement between the US and UN in which the US would provide assistance to The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, the Compact of Free Association was conceived. The US Congress approved the legislation establishing COFA in 1986. #ARhistory (6/9)

Among other things, the Compact of Free Association allowed the Marshallese to travel freely between the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the US.

Springdale is now home to the largest Marshallese community outside the RMI.

#ARhistory

(7/9)
mei.ngo/marshallese-in…

The nuclear test that sank the USS Arkansas was part of a long series of such tests that made the Marshall Islands and other Pacific Island sovereign nations unsafe.

Today, more than 15,000 Marshallese call Arkansas home.

#ARhistory

(8/9)

To date, the Marshallese community accounts for 60 percent of Covid-19-related deaths in Washington County, the place that's home to the largest population of Marshallese outside the RMI.

We continue to fail them, and it absolutely must end.

#ARhistory

(9/9)